Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-03-18

surround it and sweep it out toward rapture
or woe. ali! that will be the Swelling of
Jordan" l know people sometimes talk
very merrily about the departure from this
life. | am sorry to hear it. But men do
make fun Of The passage from one world
to another. Byron joHed Il great deal about
it, but when it came he sLlvered with hol-
ror. Many all intidel has scoffed Mt the
| idea of fearing a future world. but lying
| upon his pillow in the last hour his teeth
| chat,cred with terror. l saw in West
| Minister abbey an epitaph which q poet
! ordered TO be put upon his tomb:
Life is u Jest,
And all til. ngs show it,
thought SO once,
l5ua now l know it.
] thought how inapt that, in a place Of
| sepulchre, men should try their wi.ticiSms.
| A great German having rejected Christ, i'll
his last moment said: Give me light, give
me light" Oh, We may be smart with our
| Witt ism abou, the last hour; but when it
! comes. and the tides are rising, md the
| surf is beating, and the winds are blowing,
we will each one, my brethren. find for
| himself that it is the swelling of Jor-
dam Our natural corra c won't hold
out then. However familiar we may have
been with seems OF mortality, however
muchMe may have screwed our courage
up, we want something more than natural
resources. When the northwest wind
blows off from the sea of death, it will
put out all earth y lights. The lamp
of the gospel, God lighted, is the only
weakest arm holding that shall not be con-
founded: the strongest one rejecting that
shall stumble and die. When the Jordan
rises in its wrath the first dash Of its wave
will swamp them forever. We feel how
sad it is for a MAJ to attempt this lite with
out religion. We see what a doleful thing
it is for a man to go down into the misfor-
tunes of life without Christian solace; but
if that be SO, how much more terrible when
that man comes face to face with the SOL
emnities of the last hour! Oh, ii in the
bright sunshine of health and prosperity a
man felt the need of something better, how
will he feel when the shadows of the last
hour gather above his pillow? If, in the
warmth of worldly prosperity he was some
times dismayed, how will he feel when the
were comparatively smooth he was dis
quietcd, what will he do in the agonies of
dissolution? If in the land of peace in
which he trusted, they wearied him. what
will he do amid "the swelling of Jordan"
Oh! 1 rejoice to know that so many of
Gods children have gone through thatpa
without q shudder. Some one said to a
dying Christian: isn't it hard for you to
go out of this world?" "Oh, no." he says
1T is easy diving; it is blessed dying; it is
glorious dying" and then he pointed to a
clock on the wall, and he said: "The last
two hours in which I have been dying l
have had more joy than all the years of my
life" A General came into the hospital af-
ter the battle, and there were many serious
ly wounded, and there was one man dying,
and the General said: "Ah, my dear fell
low, you seem very much wounded.
get we'll" "No," said the soldier,
Il am not going to get we'll, but
I feel very happy" Oh. I have seen them,
and so have you, go out of this life with.
out n tear on their cheek! There was
weeping all round the room, but no Weep
ing in the bed; the cheeks were dry. They
were not thrown down into darkness, they
were lifted up. We saw the tides rising
around them, and the swelling of the wave.
1t washed them off from the cares and tolls
of life; it washed them on toward the
bea b of heaven. They waved to us a fare
we'll kiss as they stood on deck, and foated
down further and further. waited by gales
from heaven, until they were lost TO ou,
SlSul -A1O4ShA1NN A1tluS OcGOut llQmOf.
tally
Ltfe's duty done, as sinks the clay,
Light from its load the spirit flies:
While heaven and earth combine to say,
How blest the righteous when he dies!
What high consolation to you that YOU,
departed friends were not submerged in the
swelling OF Jordan? Tue Israeii,es we're
Just US thoroughly alive on the western
banks of the Jordan; and our departed
Christian friends have only crossed over
not sick, not dead, not exhausted, not ex-
tingulshed. not blotted out. but with heath
Ter respiration and stouter pulses, and
keener eyeslght, and bette prospects,
Gro -sed over, tneir sins, their physical and
ment i %disquiet. al left clear this side, and
eternally flow ng, impossible obstacle be-
tween them and all human and satanic pur.
snit. Crossed over! Oh, l shake hands OF
congratu'ation with all the bereaved in the
consideration that our departed Christ. an
friends are safe!
Why was there years ago so much ioy il
certain circles in New York when people
heard from tteir friends who were on boart
the City 0 Brussels! 1t was thought tina
vessel had gone to the bottom of the sea
and when the friends on this side hear,
that the st. amer had arrived safely in Liv.
elpool, hnd We not the ii. ht to congratulate
the people III New York that their friend.
had got safely across? And is it not ri. h
this morning that I congratulate you tina
your departed friends are safe on the shores
of heaven Would you lave them bacl
again? Would you have those old parent
ba X again! You know how hard 1t wal
sometimes for them to get their breatl
i'll the s,itiea atmosphere of the sum.
mer. Would you have them lack in thi,
summer? Didn't they Use their hroin Ion,
enough? Would you in>e your G ildref
back again? M'uld you have them tax,
the risk of Temptations wi, oh throng ever,
human pathwn? Would YOU have then
cross the ord II three times in addition /,
crossing i already, and cross it again t,
greet You now, aud ,h.n cross hack after
ward! Tor certa'nly You would not wan
to Keep tFtcm forever ont OF heaven, I
they all lived iorty or fifty years lonpe
would t.ey have been STE? Perhaps 50
perhaps not.